The Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ) rejected, on 6 February 2023, the appeal filed by judge Anatolie Turcan against the decision of the Independent Evaluation Commission for assessing the integrity of candidates for the position of member in the self-administration bodies of judges and prosecutors (Pre-Vetting Commission). In this decision, the Pre-Vetting Commission held that serious doubts have been found in relation to judge Anatolie Turcan’s compliance with ethical and financial integrity criteria and thus he failed the evaluation. The SCJ upheld the Pre-Vetting Commission’s decision. The decision of the Supreme Court of Justice is irrevocable and cannot be appealed . This is the first decision of the SCJ reviewing the Pre-Vetting Commission’s decisions.
The SCJ decision is public and can be consulted here (Romanian version): http://jurisprudenta.csj.md/search_col_civil.php?id=70713
By 6 February 2023, 11 judges running for the position of member in the SCM, and who are subject to the extraordinary evaluation by the Pre-Vetting Commission, had exercised their legal right to appeal the unfavorable decisions of the Evaluation Commission before the Supreme Court of Justice. These are magistrates Iurie Bejenaru, Anatolie Turcan, Vitalie Stratan, Angela Bostan, Vladislav Holban, Sergiu Osoianu, Ecaterina Buzu, Veronica Cupcea, Aliona Miron, Mihail Bușuleac, Nicolae Șova. Hearings in several of these cases were not set up, pending the examination by the Constitutional Court of the application on the exception of unconstitutionality on the latest amendments to Law No 26/2022.
Note: For the examination of these sui-generis cases (one-of-a-kind), the Supreme Court of Justice has created a special judicial panel, composed of 3 judges and a substitute judge appointed by the President of the SCJ, under the Law no. 26/2022. According to the law, the SCJ may adopt one of the following decisions: reject the appeal or accept the appeal, if it finds the existence of some circumstances that could have led to candidate’s passing of evaluation and order that the Evaluation Commission resumes the evaluation of the candidate. The decision of the special judicial panel of the Supreme Court of Justice is irrevocable from the moment it is issued.
